LA Review of Books

Kate Wolf and Medaya Ocher speak with the filmmaker Kelly Reichardt about her new movie, "The Mastermind," out in theaters now. Josh O’Connor stars as an unemployed carpenter named JB, who hatches a plan to rob the museum in his small Massachusetts town of its collection of Arthur Dove paintings. JB soon he finds himself on the run, leaving his young family behind for a Greyhound tour of 1970s America, a country torn apart by the war in Vietnam and Cambodia. Reichardt talks about her own childhood, her obsession with art heists and how we all, ultimately, get caught up in the sweep of history.

Medaya Ocher and Eric Newman speak with writer Grace Byron about her debut novel, "Herculine." Set between the freelance rat race of New York and an equally cutthroat commune for trans women in rural Indiana, "Herculine" follows a narrator trying to put her life together. Featuring demons, conversion therapy, and blood rites, the novel is part horror part coming-of-age tale. Byron discusses how the book emerged from a memoir project, as well as the joys and struggles of making community and a life as a trans woman. Byron is also a critic and essayist, whose work has appeared in the "New Yorker," "New York Magazine," "Los Angeles Review of Books," "The Nation" and other publications.

Chris Kraus joins Kate Wolf to talk about her new novel, "The Four Spent the Day Together." Organized into three linked sections, the book begins with a portrait of Kraus’s avatar, Catt Greene, and her family, as they struggle to overcome the isolation of the suburbs after moving into their first home in Milford, Connecticut, in the late 1950s. The book’s second part takes place many decades later: Catt is now a well-known novelist grappling with sudden fame and her failing marriage to an alcoholic ex-con named Paul Garcia with whom she lives part time in the woods of Minnesota. The final section finds Catt investigating a crime that has taken place near her home with Paul, in the neighboring town of Harding, when three teenagers senselessly murder a man after spending a full 24-hours together. What binds the stories together is alienation, chance, the acceleration of history and the spoils of late capitalism, the devastation of addiction, and an attempt to reconcile something even darker and more ineffable about the American project as it exists today.

Join veteran film critic J. Hoberman as he delves into the vibrant 1960s New York avant-garde. He shares insights on the dynamic interplay of art and politics, revealing how underground films and controversial happenings intersected with civil rights movements. Hoberman highlights the transformative roles of female artists and contrasts the era's organic creative communities with today's digital networks. He also discusses censorship's paradoxical impact on visibility and how the counterculture's legacy still resonates today.

Eric Newman speaks to Alejandro Varela about his latest novel, "Middle Spoon." Told in epistolary form through the narrator's unsent emails, the novel opens in the immediate aftermath of a devastating breakup. The breakup, like the relationship, was complicated. It was the narrator's first experience with polyamory, and his now ex-boyfriend ended things because the narrator refused to leave his husband and two children. As it grapples with the self-shattering experience of heartbreak, "Middle Spoon" explores how we think about love beyond the romantic couple, and how we navigate the faultines of intimacy, desire, race, and class. Eric and Alejandro dive into the cultural discourse around polyamory—why it seems to be more visible in recent years and what's driving the backlash to it–as well as how capitalism shapes modern love. They also discuss the challenges of thinking and writing through heartbreak, and how grief and love can make us unreliable narrators.

Medaya Ocher and Kate Wolf speak to the photographer and writer Sally Mann about her new book, "Art Work: On the Creative Life." In describing her path to becoming an artist, Mann provides prospective artists with insights on how to weather everything from rejection and poverty, to failure, fallow periods, and the millions of things that can come between you and your work. The book includes selections from Mann’s rich archive of photographic work prints, explaining some of the ideas that have gone into her pictures, as well early diary entries that portray a fierce determination alongside equally fierce self-doubt. She also includes excerpts from her long correspondence with a fellow photographer named Ted Orland. Mann’s advice is to write letters, keep your receipts, make lots of lists, and remember that being an artist isn't necessarily such a big deal, it’s a job like any other: you have to work at it.

In this special episode, hosts Medaya Ocher, Kate Wolf, and Eric Newman discuss the "crisis" du jour in American publishing: the erosion of male literary stars and their readers across the landscape of contemporary fiction. Is this even happening—and if so, why? Tackling cultural anxieties about the waning centrality of the straight, white male author alongside spurious statistics and questions about the material realities of publishing in the 21st century, the hosts break down the forces they see lurking behind the discourse. Links: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/07/opinion/men-fiction-novels.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/style/fiction-books-men-reading.html https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/against-high-brodernism/ https://www.vox.com/culture/392971/men-reading-fiction-statistics-fact-checked https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n16/emily-witt/do-you-feel-like-a-failure https://theconversation.com/a-new-publisher-will-focus-on-books-by-men-are-male-writers-and-readers-under-threat-255874 https://defector.com/the-plight-of-the-white-male-novelist

Kate Wolf speaks with historian Fara Dabhoiwala about his new book, "What is Free Speech? The History of a Dangerous Idea." A foundational aspect of the U.S. Constitution, free speech is a relatively recent invention and one rooted less in democratic ideals than first may be clear. Tracking its evolution from the pre-modern age through the Enlightenment to our present day, Dabhoiwala explores how free speech and freedom of the press initially served imperial and corporate interests rather than those of common citizens. His book also examines the counterintuitive ways free speech continues to be an engine for questionable ends today, benefitting tech companies and upholding misogyny and racism. But while it has never been equally distributed, free speech has also resulted, at times, in more freedom rather than less, so what are we to do with this abiding concept and how might we modify its absolutism to better serve those it claims to protect?

This week we're listening back to Eric Newman and Medaya Ocher's interview with the Palestinian poet, short-story writer, and essayist Mosab Abu Toha. Abu Toha is the author of the award-winning collection of poetry, "Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear," as well as the founder of the Edward Said Library in Gaza, which he hopes to one day rebuild. In 2025, Toha was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his series of essays about Gaza in the New Yorker and his work has also appeared in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Review of Books. This conversation took place in 2024 when "Forest of Noise," a collection of poems, grappling with Abu Toha's memories, experiences, and many losses was published. Last week the UN officially declared a famine in Gaza for the first time since the beginning of the war.

Eric Newman speaks with Nicholas Boggs about his monumental new biography, "James Baldwin: A Love Story." Drawing on fresh archival research and interviews, Boggs offers an intimate portrait of the literary legend anchored by the romances that shaped his life, writing, and political vision. Spanning Baldwin’s formative mentorship under artist Beauford Delaney, his romance with Lucien Happersberger, and lesser-known relationships with Turkish actor Engin Cezzar and French artist Yoran Cazac, the book explores how these relationships, alongside periods of isolation, served as the engines of Baldwin's literary production. Arriving amid a renaissance of interest in Baldwin’s life and work, Boggs’ biography offers a fresh perspective on the iconic writer for longtime fans and younger generations who may be encountering him for the first time.